Ford Motor Company, Shelby American and Hertz Corp., three well-known names in the auto industry, announced the release of the 2016 Ford Shelby GT-H that will be available for rent at selected U.S. airports. The unveiling of this special edition of the performance-improved 2016 Ford Mustang GT also marks the 50th anniversary of the Shelby GT350-H.

For those who are interested to drive this special edition, know that it can be rented starting on the Memorial Day weekend. It was during the 1960s that the Shelby GT350-H “Rent-A-Racer” program was started.

In honor of this, 140 units of the 2016 Ford Shelby GT-H will be made available for rent and exclusively through the Hertz Adrenaline Collection at several airports across the U.S. Shelby American CEO Joe Conway said that after the 1966 Ford Shelby GT350-H was released, it reached the status of a legend.

Rental prices have been increased for cars of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. to be picked up on Jan. 1 or later. The company raised the prices Dec. 19 to 21, 2014, for the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands. Hertz Global chief executive John Tague said in a statement that the increases were to cover fleet costs that have been rising due to dropping residual values.

The company tapped Tague last month to help restore confidence in the rental giant, which has been hounded by an aging fleet and sloppy accounting. Tague succeeded Mark Frissora, who Hertz said in September resigned for personal reasons. Hertz Global is now seeking to cut costs by over $100 million annually, while increasing investment to refresh its fleet.

Hertz has yet to report any financial result this year and has even told investors not to depend on its last three years of financial statements. It announced in November that its board’s audit committee was “looking into the tone at the top” and management’s influence over accounting errors.

Mark Frissora is leaving Hertz Global Holdings Inc. as its chairman and chief executive due to personal reasons, the rental car company said in a statement. Investors, however, had been calling for his removal, citing accounting and operational missteps.

His departure has prompted the company’s board to name Brian P. MacDonald – currently CEO of Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. -- as interim CEO as well as Linda Fayne Levinson -- independent lead director – as independent non-executive chairman.

The board has also initiated a search for a permanent CEO. Hertz named Frissora as its CEO in 2006, just before its initial public offering. Under his helm, Hertz acquired Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. in 2012, although the company failed to capitalize on the pricing power that the consolidation had created.

Shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. surged $28.62 at the close last trading day in New York in 2013 after reaching a peak of $28.90, after the company announced adopting a so-called poison pill upon detecting “unusual and substantial activity” in its stock. Hertz’s board voted unanimously for a one-year shareholder-rights plan, which wasn’t adopted in response to any specific takeover bid or proposal to acquire the rental company.

The company saw unusual options activity in recent weeks and suspected that more than one activist investor has used options to take a position in its shares, two people privy with the matter told Bloomberg. Third Point LLC has acquired a stake in Hertz and is not planning to take an activist role, according to CNBC, citing unnamed sources.

The one-year plan entails Hertz issuing one preferred share purchase right for each share of common stock as of the close of business on Jan. 9, 2014. The rights cannot be exercised until 10 percent of Hertz common stock is bought by one person or group, with the exception of passive institutional investors whose threshold is 15 percent.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is planning to at least double monthly sales of retired rental vehicles to retail consumers over the next two years, to between 6,000 and 8,000 units by 2015, chief executive Mark Frissora said. Hertz sells about 16,000 retired rental vehicles a month, of which between 3,000 and 3,200 are sold to consumers.

The move would mean that there will be fewer retired rental vehicles that Hertz will send to auctions. According to Frissora, retired rental vehicles sold through the company’s retail locations generate profits of around $1,100 to $1,500 per vehicle while those sold at traditional wholesale auctions sometimes results to a loss. He remarked that more sales to retail consumer would help trim the risk associated with fluctuating used-vehicle prices.

Frissora said that normally, one doesn’t “take more than a $1,000 to $1,500 a car loss." He said that if he could sell almost equal number of retired rental vehicles on wholesale and retail, he could really mitigated the risk of the residual market.

Hertz and Ford have quite a history with unique rental cars as their partnership started back in 1918, when the rental company was founded. In 1918, Hertz leased plenty of Ford T models and in 1966 the exclusive GT350H Mustang. The history continues with the 2008 Mustang Shelby GT-H. The Hertz Mustang black with gold stripes and personally signed by Carol Shelby were also very popular.

The latest vehicle to arrive at Hertz is the Ford Focus ST-H, a black hot hatch with gold stripes and wheels. The new Focus ST-H will be available in the Netherlands.

Due to great success Hertz now adds a third copy to the fleet. As expected, the Ford Focus ST-H is powered by the 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine developing 250 hp (184 kW), can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.5 seconds and has a top speed of 248 km/h or 154 mph.

Hertz Global Holdings has determined that it has too many vehicles and has decided to gradually cut down its fleet over the next six months, according to chief executive Mark Frissora. The vehicles will be sold to retail consumers directly. In September, Frissora disclosed that rental demand in July and August at its airport locations in the United States was "weaker than anticipated," creating an excess of vehicles.

Two of Hertz's major rivals -- Enterprise Holdings and Avis Budget Group – said that their summer fleets were in line with demand. According to Ricky Beggs, managing editor of Black Book, prices of one- and two-year-old used vehicles typically depreciate more in the last "three or four" months of the year than during other three-month periods.

Rental car companies typically cut their fleets by selling vehicles at auctions after Labor Day and into October, which is the end of the vacation season as well as the beginning of the new-car sales year -- something, that according to Frissora, Hertz failed to do this year. He cited the fear of putting downward pressure on the used-vehicle prices as the reason.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has added a number of Tesla Motors Inc. electric cars to its rental fleet at Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. According to Hertz, it now has five Tesla Model S and Roadster EVs at the two California airports. Paula Rivera, a Hertz spokeswoman, told Bloomberg in an e-mail that the Teslas are available to rent starting at around $500 a day.

Hertz already boasts of a number of upscale models in its fleets under its Dream Cars program. Aside from the Tesla Model S and Roadster EVs, those interested could also rent higher-priced vehicles like Ferrari and Lamborghini models.

In July 2013, Hertz gained final regulatory approval for its $2.3 billion acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. The marriage between Hertz and Dollar Thrifty is expected to boost competition against rental companies Enterprise Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. logged a 32-percent increase in adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2013 to $204.4 million. In a statement, Hertz said it posted a 22-percent jump in revenues in the concerned period to $2.7 billion. The company logged a 23-percent increase in rental car revenues in the second quarter of 2013 to a record $2.3 billion.

The company also disclosed that its global total revenue per transaction day hiked by 1 percent. Hertz posted a 12-percent hike on off-airport revenue and only a 5-percent jump in airport revenues in the second quarter of 2013. Hertz chief executive Mark Frissora attributed the slight rise in airport revenues to the federal sequestration of government spending, which has led to reduction of air travel and rentals by government agencies.

According to Frissora, the average age of the company's fleet has surged to 9.3 months from 8.8 months in 2013, mainly due to its acquisition of Dollar-Thrifty, which was approved weeks ago. He remarked that Dollar-Thrifty’s fleet was older than theirs.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is finalizing a deal to acquire Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. Insiders said that an agreement may be presented early next week. A source said that the all-cash offer is for $87.50 a share. This new offer has a value of around $2.56 billion, based on the 29.24 million shares that include options and compensation-related stock listed in its quarterly regulatory filing.

Another source said that both boards will see the proposal this weekend. There’s still no guarantee that this deal will be completed. It offers an 8% premium over Dollar Thrifty's closing price Friday of $81. For over two years, Hertz has sought to acquire Dollar Thrifty, the last available publicly held rental-car company.

Dollar Thrifty shareholders turned down the bid that Hertz made in 2010 of about $1.2 billion. Last year, it made another offer but it was later withdrawn due to market conditions. A source said that several of these figures might not be the same anymore since the regulatory filling on August 2 that may have an impact on Hertz's exact cost of the acquisition.

Racing fans are sure to grab the opportunity to drive the upgraded Mustang GTs that will be offered under the “rent-a-racer” program that Shelby American is thinking about reviving, according to an AutoWeek report. It’s likely that the program will be launched as early as next spring to coincide with the company’s 50th anniversary.

These cars will be available in two traditional configurations: black-and-gold and white-and-gold. The 2012 Mustang GT will be powered by the naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8, which delivers 412 hp, together with an automatic transmission.

The company partnered with Hertz in 1966 to build 1,000 copies of the performance Mustang. The program returned four decades later but even with limited availability, the GT-H had remained popular.

Dollar Thrifty, which is the fourth-largest U.S. car-rental company, said that there’s no assurance that it will get the approval for a deal with Hertz or Avis Budget Group Inc. On May 9, Hertz, the largest publicly traded rental-car company, offered to purchase Dollar Thrifty for cash and stock as part of efforts to beat Avis’s bid.

The day after the bid was made, Hertz’s offer was valued at $72 a share -- about 24% higher than Avis’s proposal in September. Last September, Dollar Thrifty shareholders had rejected a $1.44 billion offer from Hertz.

To counter a bid by rival Avis Budget Group Inc., Hertz Global Holdings Inc. made an offer to buy Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. for $2.24 billion in cash and stock.

Hertz, the largest publicly traded rental-car company, offered $72 a share, which is 24% higher than what Avis offered. Hertz, whose offer was rejected previously, wants to prevent the merging of Avis and Dollar Thrifty (the third- and fourth-largest U.S. rental car companies).

Avis and Dollar Thrifty have been asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to approve this deal. Fred Lowrance, an analyst with Avondale Partners LLC in Nashville, Tenn., believes that the bidding process will not end here and expects Avis to act soon.

As part of the expansion of Hertz Corp.’s electric vehicle fleet, an electric version of the Smart ForTwo will be offered in three major cities. On Dec. 15 in New York, the ForTwo will start to be available. Washington will receive the ForTwo in the first quarter of 2011 and San Francisco will get it in the second quarter.

In these cities, Hertz will be launching a car sharing network, called Connect. This enables Hertz’s customers to rent by the hour rather than by the day. Hertz believes that by allowing hourly rentals, it will be able to take a piece of the market away from car sharing company Zipcar Inc.

According to Hertz CEO Mark Frissora (the former CEO of supplier Tenneco Inc.), its partnership with Smart USA is one of the strategies included in its long-term plan to provide electric vehicle access on a global scale.

Coda Automotive inked a deal to provide electric vehicles at Hertz locations in Southern California beginning next year. Just last week, Coda had announced that it will delay the introduction of its all-electric sedan until the second half of 2011. Coda will ship a batch (of an undisclosed number) of its sedans to Hertz, which has agreed to add 100 all-electric Nissan Leafs to its fleet.

The deal is expected to help measure consumer interest and bring the commercialization of electric vehicles a step further. Hertz and other fleet owners in California could get up to $20,000 in tax incentives for zero emission commercial vehicles.

In addition, EV buyers get rebates between $2,500 and $7,500 from the federal government. In a statement, Coda CFO Mark Jamieson said that the 100% electric Coda was created to meet the needs of “most Americans with dependable, all-season range and fast, convenient charging.”

After Hertz Global Holdings Inc. withdrew its $1.44 billion bid to acquire Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. as shareholders rejected the deal, there is now no obstacle for Avis Budget Group Inc.'s $1.53 billion takeover offer.

At a special meeting in Chicago last Thursday, Dollar Thrifty investors holding about 13.8 million shares voted against the Hertz bid while those in favor only accounted for about 11.8 million shares.

In a statement, Hertz CEO Mark Frissora said that the company would end all activities linked to the Dollar Thrifty takeover and will now focus on the expansion of its Advantage brand and US off-airport business.

Select fleet customers will be offered Nissan's first mass-market electric vehicle, the 2011 Leaf, this December. A few months after, Hertz will be making the EV available in its US and European rental fleets.

Mark P. Frissora, Hertz chairman and chief executive officer, said that the partnership with Nissan seals Hertz's commitment to green-car rentals. In addition, it firmly demonstrates the Company's mission to advance "zero-emission mobility on a global scale."

Frissora added that by making the Hertz Green Collection available to its customers, Nissan is "continuously providing innovative mobility solutions to sustain the growing demand for eco-travel."